Jack is a troubled man. The cops want him in jail, the mafia wants him dead, and every racer wants to see him eat dust. There's one race that can solve most of his problems, and that is a race from San Francisco to New York.

The only goal is to be in first by the time you get to New York.

Recommended Age

Minimum Age

Available On

12

10

PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Overall Fun

Length

Frustration

Violence

Sexuality

Substances

Gambling

6

5

5

4

1

0

2

Mods

Religion

Anti-Law

Community

Sports

Magic

Miscellaneous

0

0

5

2

8

0

0

1. Gameplay

Overall Fun - 6

The Need for Speed franchise has undergone many changes since it was first created. After Need for Speed: Carbon, it looked like the idea of including stories in these games was over. But EA and Black Box decided to bring it back. It works well enough, but it’s not perfect.

At least it's not a total trainwreck.

Jack Rourke has pissed off the mafia. I’m not exactly sure how, but evidently his problems can only be solved with a lot of cash. Fortunately for him, there’s a race for $25 million. All he has to do is win a extreme distance cannonball race from San Francisco to New York. If he does, his mafia problems are solved and he gets to keep a clean $2.5 million.

Once the player gets over the slight absurdity of the premise, the gameplay isn’t awful. The racing mechanics are slightly more realistic than that of Hot Pursuit, but not as impossible to use as Shift (two other Need for Speed titles that were released within a few years of The Run). This is the kind of game that serious fans of racing games might enjoy, but it’s too difficult for a newcomer to pick up and figure out before getting frustrated or bored.

For the most part the racing is relatively dull. You’ll pass a lot of racers and pass a lot of timed checkpoints on your way across the nation. The monotony is occasionally broken up by one or two boss levels that can get pretty interesting. Some races even feature police officers or mafia members that will try and prevent the player from crossing the finish line, but these are surprisingly few and far between.

Why couldn't I make this jump in first person?

The multiplayer was awful. I’m not sure whether it was the game or my opponent’s internet connections, but they kept teleporting from one side of the street to the other. This meant that passing them was a challenge in itself, since I wasn’t sure if they’d be ramming into me at light speed. There were also a number of times when I wrecked my car for doing simple things like taking a jump or bumping into a wall at a gradual speed. Nothing seemed clean and I was frustrated despite having passed four of the eight racers.

Third place and damn proud of it.

The campaign was a lot of fun, but this game isn’t nearly as good as the other Need for Speed games. Die-hard fans will have fun, but the average gamer could pass it up without missing much.

Length - 5

The Run lasted a bit longer than I expected. While the game modes got a bit old after a while, the different race locations added enough spice to keep things fresh throughout the campaign. The whole thing lasted me at least 12 hours, but considering I’m an experienced Need for Speed player I would say that most players would probably take much longer to complete The Run even on easier difficulty levels. This is especially true if they’re going for achievements.

There are challenge modes that the players can complete, but after completing the campaign I have little desire to go back and try new things. The multiplayer has players still, even on the PC version, but the mechanics were so poorly designed that it’s hardly worth trying.

This game would definitely be worth some replay value, especially certain races (like the Colorado avalanche race), but as a whole the replay value of the entire campaign feels limited.

Frustration Factor - 5

Certain elements of this game got very frustrating. First, it was extremely easy to wreck your car. Hitting almost anything solid at high speeds would cause the player to crash and require a restart from a previous checkpoint. This wasn’t a huge deal, it was just a mechanic in the game, but this combined with other elements could lead to some very frustrating scenarios.

I hate that orange text.

The specific other elements would depend on the map. The police officers had the uncanny ability to drive at twice the player’s speed even if I was going 200+ mph while using nitrous on a straightaway. The cops would use their unnatural speed to bump me, causing me to temporarily lose control and go careening into an oncoming car or some other similarly solid object. There were more than a few occasions where I was in sight of the finish line when a cop would bump me, cause me to wreck, and I’d have to try again.

The mafia was also extremely frustrating. This is especially true towards the end of the Chicago sections when two SUVs and a helicopter would fire at me simultaneously. I tried one 15 second section half a dozen times before I managed to figure out a system where I could not only beat the mafia SUVs but also catch up with my target racer. It was by far the most difficult section in the game.

Escape the mob? In this car? Right.

The last race of the game was frustrating as well. Not because it was difficult, it was definitely much easier than the Chicago races, but because it made no logical sense. The track forced me into the New York subway system where I had to avoid trains in both inbound and outbound directions. The game would give me very little time to make the necessary turns, so it ended up being a matter of memorizing the timing. It was frustrating and definitely not fun.

2. Parental Notices

Violence - 4

Surprisingly, there is some violence involved in this game. Occasionally the player will be attacked by the mafia. When this happens, the player will be shot at repeatedly. The gunfire could come from other cars or from a helicopter that has a nasty habit of following the player’s every step.

And how do you propose I do that?

The player will also go through a few cutscenes where he must disable police officers who are attempting to arrest him. The player never kills any police officers.

Say cheese!

While driving, violence levels will be significantly lower. Players will be rewarded for passing opponents without damaging them, so if everything goes well there should be little contact between the player and the other racers.

The cops and the mafia members are a different story. They will constantly ram the player with unbelievable amounts of force, purposefully putting themselves in harm’s way just to try and wreck the player. They’re near suicidal in their tenacity. But their inclusion in levels is surprisingly rare, so violence is hardly much of a factor while racing.

You'll have to sometimes take a few down.

Sexuality - 1

The main character gets distracted once by two allegedly attractive women. But other than some mild flirty looks and camera angles that spend far too long focused on the female buttocks, sexuality is not a factor.

Why? Just... why?

Substances - 0

The main character can be seen once drinking an energy drink. Considering this is the only form of “substances” notable in the game, substances are not a factor.

Gambling - 2

Gambling is a minor factor in this game. First, the player’s sponsor has to pay an up-front entry fee. I saw this as gambling, since the sponsor is essentially betting that money on the player in the hopes that, when the player wins the race, she will get a much larger payout. Put a small amount down, potentially win a large amount back. To me, that’s gambling.

One of the rival racers evidently has a history of gambling. He is specifically mentioned to have put his entire savings on this race in hope of getting a huge payout. It’s a similar circumstance to the main character, but the rival is fronting his own cash rather than having a sponsor come up with the money.

3. Other Factors

Mods - 0

There are no modding tools available for this game.

Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

Anti-Law - 5

For some reason the mafia really wants the player dead. The logic behind this isn’t made evident for the vast majority of the game, but organized crime is definitely present. There are numerous occasions when the mafia will attempt to kill the player during the game. These aren’t assassination-like hits either, these are outright blatant acts of murder on busy city streets with loud weapons.

Overkill?

The player isn’t exactly a law-abiding citizen either. Aside from the highly illegal cannonball run in which the player is a participant, the player will frequently have to evade pursuing law enforcement agents. While in the car, this may be escaping or disabling police vehicles.

I'm sorry, officer, was I speeding?

On foot, the player will get into brief cinematic fist fights with cops. Eventually the player even steals a police car in order to evade not just the police but the mafia.

You think that someone would notice the open warfare going on.

Online Community - 2

The online matches that I played were decent. The poorly designed multiplayer mechanics were by far the most obvious flaw. But aside from one player who would make annoying sounds using his microphone, the gamers were civil and I didn’t notice any obvious cheating.

Extreme Sports - 8

As the premise of this game surrounds illegal high-speed street racing in locations that are at least based on real highways in the United States, the extreme sports factor is going to be naturally high. The player will constantly reach speeds topping 150 MPH. There will be plenty of hairpin turns, driving, driving into oncoming traffic, and near misses that will leave the player’s adrenaline pumping.

There are a number of times when the extreme sports level will reach even more absurd heights. There are plenty of times when the player will have to perform sharp turns at high speeds while maintaining enough control to prevent falling off the edge of a steep cliff or running into objects and wrecking his car. It’s a very delicate balance of speed and agility that would be nearly impossible in real life.

Going 229 on an icy road during an avalanche? No problem!

In one level the player will have to race down a snowy mountain in Colorado. The road has been blocked off but that doesn’t stop the player and a rival racer from taking the treacherous highway that’s covered in black ice. As if that weren’t dangerous enough, the local rangers are using rockets to cause avalanches that cover the highway that the player is racing down. At first this just leads to some large snowballs and difficult driving, but later there are some huge rocks that block the player’s path and could potentially wreck the player’s car.

Unafraid.

The final race involves pushing the player into New York’s subway system and forcing the player to avoid trains in both directions with little to no warning. It would be absolutely suicidal to pull off in real life.